Chapter Thirteen #2
“I’m gonna go get us some drinks,” I said, sparing a quick glance at Mace.
This had to be pretty confusing, seeing our dynamic.
Especially Waverley and War bickering. Things had to get back on track, allowing a Kingsmen to see us like this irritated me.
I left them and headed to the kitchen, grabbed the beers I’d left the other day.
I contemplated getting water for Mace, then remembered I didn’t give a fuck about him, and headed back.
Seemed like no one moved or spoke while I was away. I wasn’t sure if War wanted me to take over the way I had with Omen. It felt like a lifetime ago we sat in that dirty old house questioning our brother about his betrayal. Now we were questioning a Kingsmen about his.
“Can we just get this over with so I can fucking leave?”
“You think you’re leaving?” War asked.
Mace’s face was thunderous. He shifted on the seat, wriggling his wrists a little bit.
I looked at Waverley, she was about to open her mouth, but I gave her a look that said, don’t even think about it.
For once, she listened. It must be finally dawning on her we’re showing a side of us we didn’t want Mace to see.
The last thing she wanted to do was make us look weak, even if she was protecting this asshole.
“If you did leave, where do you possibly think you can go where your head isn’t going to be detached from your body?
” War taunted him. “If my President doesn’t get hold of you and do it, yours will.
No, Mace, sucks for you that this is the safest place you can be right now.
And trust me, the only reason I haven’t shot out your kneecaps is because my sister is standing beside me. ”
Waverley tutted. I handed her a beer to keep her quiet, then shepherded her to the sofa.
She sat down glaring at me, but I just sat next to her, close enough that our arms and thighs were touching.
She was pressed into the corner. Fortunately, she didn’t push back or argue about it.
Hopefully because she needed to touch me the way I needed to touch her.
It still felt surreal that the agony and uncertainty of the last few days was finally over, and she was here.
“Tell me what Nytro has planned?”
“No idea.”
“Bullshit.”
“Like you said,” Mace glared up at him. “I got no choices now. So why the fuck would I tell you anything? If I knew anything,” he added.
“So Nytro shut you out, is that it?”
Mace’s eyes went to Waverley. He’d been with her for the whole time she was gone.
It actually made sense he had been too far away from the action.
It was fucked up that I felt thankful for that.
Not in the sense he may not be able to give us anything, but he’d not just watched over her, he’d protected her. I was really conflicted about it.
“We already know he tried to kill Ranger,” War went on. “Was he going to kill you too, has this whole thing just pushed up the timeline on your place in your club?”
Again, Mace just glared defiantly back at War. This wasn’t getting us anywhere.
“Tell us about Danica,” I spoke up. Seemed to me, discussing his club was making this conversation stall and I got that. Despite what was happening, he was loyal. I didn’t doubt he’d go to his grave without saying a bad word about the Kingsmen. Danica was a different story.
War blanched slightly at the mention of his mother. It had to be fucking with his head that she was still alive, especially after those photographs of her dead body were sent to King.
“Why did she take Waverley?” I asked.
Mace inhaled and blew out a long breath through his nose.
“Consider this Mace,” I told him. “We’re doing you a favor here. You know Ballistic,” I said, it wasn’t a question though. Everyone knew of Ballistic. “He will be our next call.”
It pained me to insinuate my mentor would be more able to break him, when I was perfectly capable of it, but Ballistic didn’t have the emotional attachment I did. This weird fucking gratitude to our enemy. Still, I couldn’t be soft either.
“It won’t matter what Waverley says, we’ll take you to him and he won’t have you sat all cozy in a warm house.”
I could see his jaw clenching as he looked away from us all, but the resignation was leeching through his body.
He was smarter than most of the assholes in his club, much like Ranger, he knew how to act in situations like this.
He would give us some information, but not everything, I was sure of that.
“She showed up just over a year ago. She portrayed herself as his long lost aunt, desperate to get back in touch with the only family she had. Nytro didn’t buy it, at first.”
“What did she do to change his mind?”
“Money,” he looked up at War, whose brow furrowed.
“From where?”
“Her rich husband,” Mace sighed, he sat back, trying to get comfortable.
“I don’t know what they talked about, Nytro started talking bullshit around the clubhouse about how Ranger wasn’t getting things done.
He told everyone we were missing opportunities because he was going soft.
It was around about the time you started dealing with the Irish,” he added, reluctantly.
He didn’t want to be telling us this. “He sewed a lot of discord.”
“So your fuck up of a Prez was dazzled by cash and power and decided he would do her bidding?”
A barely perceptible nod. I could see the shame rippling over his skin.
“I’d say he was an ambitious asshole, but I don’t think he knows what the word means.
She never came around the clubhouse, but I followed him a couple of times, he met up with her at some bar in Newark.
Ranger told me to shrug it off as a family thing, not our concern.
But Nytro was talking shit since she showed up. Made sense the two were connected.”
“And around this time, she put Lily into Omen’s path?” War asked, his shoulders tightened at the mention of her name.
He shrugged, like he didn’t know anything about that.
It was obvious Danica had set a plan in motion.
She wanted the Kingsmen unsettled with her pawn at the top and she was digging her way into the Devil’s.
But why? I figured Wave hadn’t mentioned to War that Lily, or Kristy, what the fuck ever, was their half-sister.
Not the best time to bring it up either.
“Ranger’s accident happened, it was…” he clenched his teeth. “Tough. But it didn’t stop me from doing my job.”
“Nytro did though,” I commented. It was like a red rag to a bull. His face morphed angrily. “How’d he convince everyone to make him President?” I asked casually sipping my beer. “That had to sting.”
“Hudson,” Waverley sighed, but I didn’t take my eyes off Mace.
“That fucker had got into people’s heads, right? He convinced those brothers of yours that his way was a better way, he’d already been laying the foundations before Ranger’s accident.” We all knew Nytro had orchestrated that, at Danica’s request.
“Smart,” War commented. “On Danica’s part.”
“Where are they?” Mace ground out.
“Who?” I asked with an innocent shrug.
“I know you’ve been picking them up, have you killed them all?”
“Do you think we’re animals?” I said, deadpan.
“You’re worried about them after all of this?” War laughed. “After the messages you’ve been getting from them?”
Waverley must have filled him in on the texts and calls from Mace’s smashed phone.
Which reminded me, I still had the sim card.
I needed to get it to Kansas as soon as possible.
Though given the way this conversation was going, Mace didn’t know anything about what Nytro had been up to.
I doubted, if they had any sense, they’d put their plans down in texts.
“Some of those men are loyal to Ranger, to the club, they have families,” Mace gritted out.
“None of them seemed to care about the families of our members, when they blew up our fucking gate,” I told him. “Or when they’ve attacked our brothers and left them for dead.”
War’s tells were not obvious to anyone else, but I saw them. Those instances were referring to Connor. Mace had the good sense to lower his eyes. I could see he hated asking about his brothers, but he gave a shit about them. That said something. I still hated his fucking guts.
“They’ve found themselves in temporary accommodation, let’s put it that way,” War said. Mace didn’t look even remotely relieved at hearing that. “So they fucked you over and you just let them?”
“Majority rules,” he said tightly.
That was bullshit, unless he’d committed some kind of serious misconduct, the VP was the one who made the decisions in the Prez’s absence and brought the votes.
Everything about this was fucked up and done behind Mace’s back.
I wasn’t sure why he was staying so steadfastly loyal to the bastards.
I was sick of the history lessons anyway.
And past caring about how it affected Mace.
“How does Waverley tie into all of this?” I asked, getting up.
“Why did Danica take her, cause all this shit?” A look passed between Waverley and Mace that made me bristle.
I actually had to hold myself back from punching him in the face.
“And why the fuck did you go along with having her kidnapped?”
“I didn’t know they were going to do that,” Mace looked up at me, giving as good as he was getting. “Danica didn’t either. It wasn’t part of the plan.”
My eyes narrowed. What in the fuck did that mean?
“Lily got fed up of being inside the Devil’s and took matters into her own hands,” Waverley spoke up. She got to her feet too. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?” she looked at Mace.
He turned his eyes to her. “Yeah,” he sighed. “Danica was pissed about it too. She wanted you on her side, what Kristy did derailed everything.”
Waverley scoffed and folded her arms over her chest. “Yeah well, you heard how that conversation went. Mommy really wasn’t going to endear me to her after she slapped me.”
“She hit you?” War turned dark, angry eyes to his sister. “She fucking hit you?”
Waverley waved a hand at him as though it wasn’t that big of a deal. “Then she fed me a line of bullshit she thought I’d believe because us girls have to stick together. She totally underestimates me and how I will never, ever betray the Devil’s Chaos.”
I wanted to kiss her, right there and then. She’d been through so much, suffered at the hands of her own mother, been terrified she was going to be gang raped and murdered and yet here she was, standing up for us. She was hugely different from the woman we picked up a month ago.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Mace said.
“Yeah you do,” Waverley shrugged. “Danica might not have noticed, but I did. I know you heard every word she said to me.”
He didn’t so much as flinch but it was obvious Waverley was right.
“So all that crap she fed me yesterday, had to be for a reason. Why does she want me to believe dad killed her sister? And that he was coming for her next?”
War and I exchanged a glance. Clearly we should have spoken to Waverley before we started this conversation.
“To turn you against him.”
I stayed my tongue because Mace was responding.
“I don’t believe a word she said.”
“Good.”
“Mace, I’m doing everything I can to protect you.
If you think holding these two off is easy, you’re wrong.
I owe you, a lot. I won’t forget that but at some point, we are going to have to tell my dad what happened, and he won’t go as easy.
If you think Ballistic is bad, King Curtis can be a lot worse when his family is threatened.
He won’t care you got me out. He won’t thank you.
But if you’re reasonable, he’ll listen. If you tell the truth, he will consider your future and whether you actually have one. ”
After a long moment of silence, Mace’s lip twitched slightly. “She really underestimated you, didn’t she?” he asked.
“Damn fucking right she did,” Waverley told him. “Now what the fuck does she want from us?”
“I want guarantees my men will be let go.”
“After the shit they’ve said?” her eyes widened.
“The ones who sent those messages aren’t the ones you have taken. Those assholes knew what was coming and made sure they weren’t around. They fucked over the rest of them.”
That actually made sense. We’d picked up a lot of those guys incredibly easily.
It was only the assholes at Mad Hog’s warehouse that really fought back.
Men who sided with Nytro. But there was no way in hell we would be guaranteeing anything when it came to the Kingsmen.
Not until we knew what we were really dealing with.
She nodded but Mace’s eyes went to War. Wave’s word meant little. War glanced at me, then his sister before his face hardened again.
“No guarantees,” he started. Wave tried to interrupt but he held his hand up to quieten her. “But I will request that King gives you a chance and doesn’t just blow your head off as soon as he sees you.”
Waverley was scowling at her brother, but Mace got it. It was the best he was going to get.